Instagram launches new features to fight online bullying

Facebook’s Instagram said today it is launching new tools designed to combat bullying on its platform, especially among teens.

One tool, which Instagram has already begun rolling out to users, is focused on would-be bullies. It uses artificial intelligence to notify users when a comment they’ve just composed might be considered offensive. “This intervention gives people a chance to reflect and undo their comment and prevents the recipient from receiving the harmful comment notification,” says Instagram head Adam Mosseri in a blog post Monday. “From early tests of this feature, we have found that it encourages some people to undo their comment and share something less hurtful once they have had a chance to reflect,” he writes.

The second tool, which Instagram says will begin rolling out soon, is meant to empower the (potential) victim. Posters can “restrict” the accounts of certain users so that comments from those users are visible only to them, not other users.

https://www.investmentwatchblog.com/instagram-launches-new-features-to-fight-online-bullying/

New US Pentagon Chief – Vested Interest in War & Conflict

Mark Esper is expected to be confirmed in coming days as the new US Secretary of Defense. His appointment is awaiting final Congressional approval after customary hearings this week before senators. The 55-year-old nominee put forward by President Trump was previously a decorated Lieutenant Colonel and has served in government office during the GW Bush administration.

But what stands out as his most conspicuous past occupation is working for seven years as a senior lobbyist for Raytheon, the US’ third biggest military manufacturing company. The firm specializes in missile-defense systems, including the Patriot, Iron Dome and the Aegis Ashore system (the latter in partnership with Lockheed Martin).

As Defense Secretary, Esper will be the most senior civilian executive member of the US government, next to the president, on overseeing military policy, including decisions about declaring war and deployment of American armed forces around the globe. His military counterpart at the Pentagon is Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, currently held by Marine General Joseph Dunford who is expected to be replaced soon by General Mark Milley (also in the process of senate hearings).

Esper’s confirmation hearings this week were pretty much a rubber-stamp procedure, receiving lame questioning from senators about his credentials and viewpoints. The only exception was Senator Elizabeth Warren, who slammed the potential “conflict of interest” due to his past lobbying service for Raytheon. She said it “smacks of corruption”. Other than her solitary objection, Esper was treated with kid gloves by other senators and his appointment is expected to be whistled through by next week. During hearings, the former lobbyist even pointedly refused to recuse himself of any matters involving Raytheon if he becomes the defense boss.

As Rolling Stone magazine quipped on Esper’s nomination, “it is as swampy as you’d expect”.

“President Trump’s Cabinet is already rife with corruption, stocked full of former lobbyists and other private industry power players who don’t seem to mind leveraging their government positions to enrich themselves personally. Esper should fit right in,” wrote Rolling Stone.

The linkage between officials in US government, the Pentagon and private manufacturers is a notorious example of “revolving door”. It is not unusual, or even remarkable, that individuals go from one sector to another and vice versa. That crony relationship is fundamental to the functioning of the “military-industrial complex” which dominates the entire American economy and the fiscal budget ($730 billion annually – half the total discretionary public spend by federal government).

Nevertheless, Esper is a particularly brazen embodiment of the revolving-door’s seamless connection.

https://www.strategic-culture.org/news/2019/07/19/new-us-pentagon-chief-vested-interest-in-war-conflict/?fbclid=IwAR2z3juzR2CNvPjCRYoKfXaiRdr51f0AOyiQL1LgxNJNxjSe1naUAqvIKRw

That money belongs to us:

Mexican President risks feud with Trump by demanding El Chapo's $12.6bn drug money be turned over to Mexico and NOT the US - after slamming Narco's life sentence in US jail as 'inhumane'

Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador is preparing himself for a showdown with the United States over Joaquín 'El Chapo' Guzmán's fortune.

El Chapo was sentenced to life in jail at a New York City court this week by a federal judge who also ordered him to pay US authorities $12.6 billion - the figure he is estimated to have earned from drug trafficking as the head of the Sinaloa Cartel.

But on Thursday, López Obrador argued that the funds should be returned to El Chapo's home country of Mexico.

He also demanded that the US return the assets they had already seized from the gang leader. The US government estimates El Chapo's fortune at $14 billion.

López Obrador revealed his plans after a conversation with the drug kingpin's Mexico-based attorney, José Luis González Meza.

'I think that everything that is confiscated and that has to do with Mexico has to be returned to the Mexicans,' the Mexican leader said.

'I believe that the United States government will agree, but we have to do the paperwork, because I do not remember which will be held before.'

López Obrador's calls for the money to be returned to Mexico, comes as US politicians lobbied for the billions to be spent to cover Donald Trump's controversial proposed border wall along the 1,954-mile long borderline with Mexico.

Texas Republican Senator Ted Cruz told TMZ on Thursday: 'I think the next step is to criminally forfeit his entire global criminal enterprise,' Cruz said.

'It's worth billions and we should use every penny of that money to build the wall and secure the border.'

Cruz introduced what he calls the El Chapo Act, or Ensuring Lawful Collection of Hidden Assets to Provide Order Act, which seeks all of the money Guzmán made to finance Trump's wall.

'Now finding those assets, getting those assets, won't be easy,' the senator said.

'It's only fitting that money goes to secure the border and stop other traffickers.'

Nebraska Republican Senator Ben Sasse worked with Cruz to pen the bill and released a state that said that the federal government should fund the southern border wall with El Chapo's money.

'El Chapo's going to spend the rest of his life behind bars, so the feds should seize his drug money and use it to secure the border,' Sasse said.

'This convict doesn't need the cash – he'll be getting three square meals a day and making collect calls from the big house.'

Mexico's president argued that past administrations never placed claims on assets that were confiscated from criminal figures.

http://www.stationgossip.com/2019/07/that-money-belongs-to-us-mexican.html